Clinch Training with Taywin Using Elbows

Elbows are pointy and bony and can be painful. Mine are really little and pointy and very painful; or so I’m told. Taywin has instructed me before on how to dig the elbows down into the collarbone and chest when grabbing the top of the head in the “apple”, but he showed me here how to dig the elbows into the arms of an opponent who has taken the double hold on my head. It SUCKS.

Unfortunately I’m doing the elbow into the arm on the opposite side from where the camera can see. But my hands on top of his head are ridiculous – they should be locked up (and in gloves), and then you just put your elbow down into the fleshy part of the bicep, right between the muscles and press down. It helps to have your hips in. Play around with it with a partner; you’ll find the spot really quickly and won’t need to adjust much to find it again. For reference, look where Taywin and I keep rubbing our arms.

At about 0:04:15 he’s showing me how to clamp down on the head and shoulders when you’re in a tie up and basically “crush” your way out. Again, this sucks… and is really effective. Dig your chin into the shoulder (hurts) and drop your weight a bit or a lot, depending on your size and hold.

At 0:05:50 or so he’s showing me how to block on the inside of your opponent’s arm and then turn, pulling the neck and pushing with the inside bar of your forearm while stepping to the side (which I don’t do at first) in order to flip them. You kind of duck under the arm as you turn.

A 100 lb. (46 kg) female Muay Thai fighter. Originally I trained under Kumron Vaitayanon (Master K) and Kaensak sor. Ploenjit in New Jersey. I then moved to Thailand to train and fight full time in April of 2012, devoting myself to fighting 100 Thai fights, as well as blogging full time. Having surpassed 100, and then 200, becoming the westerner with the most fights in Thailand, in history, my new goal is to fight an impossible 471 times, the historical record for the greatest number of documented professional fights (see western boxer Len Wickwar, circa 1940), and along the way to continue documenting the Muay Thai of Thailand in the Muay Thai Library project: see patreon.com/sylviemuay